Raynham teen's colorful creation featured on 'Ellen'

“I was thinking the worst,” said Raynham’s Leanne LaMarca of the 6 a.m. call that woke her last Wednesday. “All I heard was a frantic voice on the other end saying ‘Ellen’, ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ ‘purse’.”

Eventually LaMarca put the pieces of the puzzle together. Her nephew, Sean Kelliher of Braintree, had seen a preview of the “Ellen” show on that morning’s ABC News. What Kelliher was breathlessly trying to get across was that LaMarca’s daughter, Ally, or specifically, something Ally had created, was going to be featured on “Ellen” that afternoon.

Back in January, late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel put out the call to the youth of America saying he wanted them to send in their best “Rainbow Loom” creations.

The Rainbow Loom is a plastic toy used to weave colorful rubber bands into bracelets and charms. Invented in 2010, the Rainbow Loom exploded in popularity, and soon millions of kids were hooked on the hobby.

Kimmel promised he would present his favorite items on a future show and would even wear a “Loom suit” if he received enough material.

The response was overwhelming. Kimmel received thousands of submissions and was on “Ellen” that morning to promote his Rainbow Loom themed show, which would be airing that evening.

Of the thousands of items he had received, Kimmel chose two to show to Ellen. One was a pair of glasses made by Kaley Juron, of Orange County, Calif. The other was a purse made by Ally LaMarca, age 13, of Raynham, Mass.

Armed with this news, Leanne LaMarca raced to her daughter’s room to wake her. Right? Wrong.

“Ally is not the kind of person you want to wake up with ANY kind of news,” LaMarca said.

Eventually Ally awoke and was told her work would be shown on “Ellen” that afternoon.

“Ally doesn’t really show a lot of emotion,” her mom said. “She tends to take it all in and then respond. Slowly, a big smile came across her face.”

Thus began a whirlwind day for Raynham’s newest celebrity.

“I started texting everybody I know,” Ally said. “I told them they had to watch ‘Ellen’ at 4 p.m. I told everybody on the bus and everybody I passed at school.”

The news spread like wildfire around Raynham Middle School, where Ally is a seventh grader. All day long, students came up to Ally asking if she was really going to be on the “Ellen” show.

“I told them I wasn’t going to be on the show myself,” Ally said. “Just something I made.”

Four p.m. finally came, and the LaMarcas huddled around their TV set. The family was disappointed, however, when Ally’s name was not mentioned in the version of the segment that aired in the afternoon.

“In the morning preview Jimmy Kimmel mentioned each girl’s name and the town she was from,” Leanne LaMarca said. “That part was cut from the ‘Ellen’ show.”

In the full version, Kimmel hands Ellen Ally’s purse and says, “You can keep almost nothing in there.” Ellen responds that she can put her Altoids in it. Kimmel says he’s not sure why Ally thought he needed a purse.

But the kid from Raynham had a plan.

“The purse is one of the biggest things I’ve made,” Ally said. “I saw online that he was mostly getting bracelets and necklaces. I figured if I sent him something different it might catch his eye.”

The Raynham teen, who also plays soccer, basketball and softball, has been catching a lot of eyes with her artwork. Aside from her Rainbow Loom creations, she draws and also makes purses, wallets and iPad covers with colored duct-tape.

Ally will be selling her creations Sunday, April 27 at HomePlate in Taunton. All money raised will go to benefit the Jimmy Fund through the Pan Mass Challenge ride set up by Raynham resident Cori Newcomb.